INTENTIONALLY walking a man with the bases loaded simply isn’t done. It’s not a baseball move.

But Buck Showalter did it last year when the batter was Barry Bonds and Buck was confident nobody else on Bonds’ Giants could beat him. Showalter surrendered to Bonds’ greatness, but he didn’t surrender the game. He won it.

Intentionally walking a man with nobody on base in the late innings of a tie game simply isn’t done. It’s not a baseball move.

Comes a time when you have to surrender to an athlete’s greatness, a time when a ballplayer’s brain enters the alpha state and everything slows down. The ball looks bigger and brighter, slower and straighter. The toughest game on earth to play becomes easy.

That time has come for Chipper Jones. He is carrying the battered Braves the way Bonds has carried the Giants all these years. And then some.

Bobby Valentine would have been cursed until the end of time if he had given Jones a pass with the bases empty and one out in the eighth inning of a game the Braves would win over the Mets, 2-1, on a pair of Chipper home runs.

Just imagine the outrage.

“That Valentine thinks he’s so smart he’s got a better way to do it when ain’t nobody been doin’ dat way since dey wore knickers and played bare-handed,” the cries would come. “But, no, he knows better cuz he’s a genius. I tell you dis guy’s gotta go.”

No, he doesn’t. Valentine has the Mets on the verge of making the playoffs for the first time since 1988. He doesn’t have to go anywhere, but it wouldn’t hurt him to consider the unthinkable if the situation that came up last night surfaces again.

Four wide ones, then an eighth-inning call to the bullpen for Armando Benitez.

With the game tied 1-1 and one out in the eighth, Valentine had a decision to make with Chipper at the plate. He could leave the right-handed Turk Wendell in to face him, call for lefty Dennis Cook, or send for one of Tonya Harding’s goons to whack Chipper in the knees. Could anyone really have blamed Valentine if he went the cheap-shot route?

The numbers supported Valentine’s decision to summon Cook. The switch-hitting Jones was 1-for-7 against him and 4 -for-9 against Wendell.

Cook threw him a changeup, then a slider, then a fastball Jones turned into a Braves win.

A better idea: Don’t pitch to him at all. Give him four balls in the dirt, or at the ankles, as in right at the ankles to make him dance or screech in pain. Or just surrender to his greatness and order Mike Piazza to signal for four wide ones with arm outstretched.

For the first time in his career, Jones has better power numbers against left-handed pitchers, but Valentine understandably liked the Cook matchup better.

“I was a little surprised they turned me around,” Jones said. “Then again, Cook has had some success against me. Can’t really fault anyone for that. Just because I hit a home run tonight doesn’t mean he won’t come back and do the same thing tomorrow. “I’d say my confidence is equal from both sides of the plate for the first time in my career,” Jones said. “In the past when they turned me around I would be disappointed I didn’t get a chance to do damage from the left side. Now it’s just so what because I know I can do damage from that side as well.”

For a change, Jones was not selected to the National League All-Star Game. He took three days off and has been on a tear ever since.

“There were guys who didn’t go who deserved to go more than I did,” Jones said. “Besides, I’d much rather be in the Fall Classic than the Mid-summer Classic.”

Jones is locked with Jeff Bagwell in a tight two-way race for NL MVP honors. Bagwell’s numbers are slightly gaudier and he, too, is a player who does more than just put up numbers. He plays the game the right way.

But for numbers alone, these are tough to beat: Three times this season, Jones has won games with extra-inning home runs.

“I can’t control that anyway so I’ll just let you guys vote and see how it turns out,” Jones said. “I’m more concerned with getting us in the playoffs any way I can.”

Hitting a home run from each side of the plate was the way Jones did it last night. The Mets can’t let him do it again.